Indwelling medical devices with inflatable portions include, for example, catheters having urinary, fecal, thoracic and abdominal applications. The inflatable portion of these catheters is typically used for retention and/or sealing.
The present valve system is useful in such devices where there are pressure changes within the inflatable portion in use.
The present valve system is particularly useful in the type of rectal catheter or fecal management system described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,727,188, US 2004/00393748A1 and US 2008/0103463A1 which are incorporated herein by reference.
The catheters used in these fecal management systems rely on a balloon at the proximal end of the catheter to retain and seal the catheter within the body. The balloon is inserted into the body in a deflated condition and is properly positioned on the distal side of the rectal muscle. The balloon is inflated once it is properly positioned. In order to remove the device, the balloon is deflated and withdrawn past the rectal muscle and outside of the body. The balloon is inflated and deflated through one or more passageways. The passageways are accessible through tubing that extends along a catheter so as to be accessible for inflation and deflation when the catheter is properly positioned in the body.
The balloon needs to be properly inflated for retaining and sealing the catheter within the body and properly deflated for insertion into and removal from the body.
It has been discovered that it would also be very desirable if the balloon pressure was self-adjusting in response to pressure changes within the body as might occur during body movement, such as from voluntary or involuntary movement from repositioning the body, coughing, sneezing, peristalsis, eating, etc.
It has been found that known devices, which are unable to self-adjust, may cause trauma to the patient, or be expelled from the body, following pressure changes within the body.
The invention sets out to address these and other problems with the prior art.